


Every Moment You’re Here is a Highlight

by renjunsrey



Series: Time Travel Au's [1]
Category: Dramarama - Monsta X (Music Video), Monsta X (Band), NCT (Band), NCT dream (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), 걸어 | All in - Monsta X (Music Video)
Genre: 1700s Korea, 60s University, Angst, Changkyun gets upset a lot, Changkyun is upset because Hyungwon keeps time skipping, Dramarama music video, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Hyungwon scares everyone while time skipping, Hyungwon time travels, I’m sorry about that, Jooheon is the only chill one, Jooseon era, Light Angst, M/M, Minhyuk saves the day while everyone is too busy being upset, NCT are there because I love my sons, Seventeen are palace entertainment, The Time Traveller’s Wife - Freeform, The palace setup is from Hwarang, They don’t do anything plot wise, Time Travel, but not really, dramarama, i wrote it in 3 days instead of doing my final assessments, involuntary time travel, i’m so sorry Hyungwon I was a little harsh, i’m sorry this is super long, jordyn’s tears, theres an indistinct farm area but it’s chill, there’s a lot of aus crammed into this one, theyre great and I love them, theyre just hanging out, time skipping, university dorm, you’ll be okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 11:37:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19108885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renjunsrey/pseuds/renjunsrey
Summary: Time skipping isn’t just something that’s supposed to happen in your life, Hyungwon was like everyone else before it happened for the first time, he lived his life all in the same timeline, not having to worry about when he would step over the boundary between times, when the time on his stopwatch ticked over to zero.Aka that one where Hyungwon involuntarily skips through time to places where there are previous incarnations of Monsta X, and he has to learn to deal with the fact that he can suddenly time travel.This is based off The Time Traveller’s wife and the music video for Dramarama! I’m not sure how great it is since it’s my first fic in the MX fandom, but there’s be more to come!Huge thanks to Jordyn for beta reading this fic and crying at me when I sent her cliffhangers at midnight during my 3 day writing blitz, I appreciate it. Maybe you’re the Lup to my Taako ;))





	Every Moment You’re Here is a Highlight

The first time that it happens, the boys are all home at their share house, Hyunwoo and Minhyuk are having a wordy battle for first place on Mario Kart, while Hoseok and Kihyun are cackling at them, retaining their steady 5th and 8th places. The two scream because they were both in range for the blue shell that hits first, and a calculating Jooheon overtakes them without a word, splitting a shining grin while laughing at their misfortune. Hyungwon and Changkyun are sprawled our over eachother on the couch, Changkyun resting his head on Hyungwon’s chest as the two mindlessly scroll through their twitter feeds, occasionally moving their screen to show the other a meme or the mishaps of their other friends in the dance troupes.

 

The first time it happens, Hyungwon shifts on the couch and finds a small intricately carved brass pocket watch squashed between the cushions that Changkyun’s body weight was currently pushing him into.

 

“What the fuck is this,,, Hey Kyunnie, look at this watch thing”

 

Changkyun looks up to Hyungwon’s face, straining his neck to see what it is that Hyungwon found, expecting a picture on his phone. He was, in fact, greeted by an actual watch

 

“Where’d you find that? It looks like your grandfather gave it to you or something”

 

Changkyun looks back at his phone, blindly scrolling

 

“It was stuck between the couch cushions, I have no idea how it got there”

 

“Huh, weird”

 

“Yeah I know right? I’m gonna open the cover”

 

Hyungwon fit his nail into the brass cover and flicked it open, only to reveal carved handles slowly drifting towards the zero

 

“It’s counting to zero? Did I press it with my ass or something?”

 

The seconds hand stops on the clock face, right before the zero, but the minute hand drifts lazily past the 57, and the 58

 

“Hah Won look at this cat”

 

Changkyun lifts his hand to show Hyungwon the knife cat, as the handle of the stopwatch, almost like it knows what’s coming, rolls at snail pace over the 59 to the zero.

 

 

Instead of a response, Changkyun’s body is thrown from his comfortable perch against Hyungwon into the couch, the shock going through his body as the other boys continue to race their hearts out on the final lap

 

“Guys,,, guys this is important”

The desperation in Changkyun’s tone makes the parent mode activate in Hyunwoo, so he pauses the game and looks up to the couch with the gaze of an older brother and raises his brows at the youngest

“Guys Hyungwon’s gone”

 

This makes everyone else look up from the pause screen, shock and confusion evident in their eyes

“He just, vanished?”

 

———

 

 

 

The first time it happens Hyungwon has absolutely no idea what’s going on, because one second he’s laying in the lounge room, hanging out with everyone, with Changkyun on top of him, scrolling through his phone, and the next second he’s got the stop watch in his hand, and he’s falling onto carpet squares in what looks like an old college dorm common room.

 

“Uhhhh, what the fuck?” Hyungwon mutters as his back hits the floor with a solid thud, he sits up, his pinky toned hair in a mess, and squinting at the new environment around him.

 

As he looks around the room he thinks at first that he’s alone, and maybe he’s hallucinating really bad right now from the 3 day old pizza he ate from the fridge this morning, maybe he should have checked with Hyunwoo before he ate that,,, he’s starting to consider just laying back down and ignoring this problem, until a pencil hits him in the back of the head

 

“WHO ARE YOU? WHY DID YOU JUST APPEAR? SERIOUSLY WHAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW” Hyungwon turns around with a frown, rubbing the back of his head, and looks at the one currently yelling at him

 

“Okay Kyunnie that was uncalled for, what the fuck” Hyungwon started to get up as the younger boy just looked at Hyungwon with both fear and confusion in his eyes, while fishing around his desk frantically to find another pencil to throw at the tall man who just manifested in his study room.

 

“Okay seriously HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!” Hyungwon is confused now, the boy who was cuddling him less than a minute ago is now holding a ruler at him as if Hyungwon was going to hurt him in some way.

 

What the fuck was wrong with Changkyun?

 

“Okay Changkyun, dude what the fuck” Hyungwon just stands and starts to walk over to the table to calm down his friend

 

“DON’T COME CLOSER, I’LL, I’ll ,,,, I’LL HIT YOU WITH THIS RULER” Changkyun swings the ruler around like a sword for extra effect and Hyungwon takes a look along the ruler and up to Changkyun’s now slightly teary eyes, squinting at the boy he does a once over

 

He’s wearing beige slacks and a green sweater that, looks like one of those US schools? The colleges that Kihyunnie wanted to go to? Hyungwon stops in his tracks and slowly puts his hands up in defense, because this wasn’t his Changkyun

 

“Where am I?” That took him off guard. The black haired boy slowly lowered his ruler and tilted his head, like a puppy, Hyungwon thought.

 

But now it was Hyungwon’s turn to be utterly confused, because a ruckus came from the door behind him and a long, black-haired Jooheon came barreling in at top speed, taking Hyungwon in a hug that he was all to familiar with, and glaring at the overly confused Changkyun who was staring between his best friend and the intruder. Hyungwon pat the arms of his friend who was currently, protecting him? From his own roommate?

 

He stepped back a bit so he could look at Jooheon

“Jooheon, what is going ON?”

 

—

After a minute Jooheon had managed to calm Changkyun down enough that now he was sitting with his head leant on the back rest of his chair, still glaring slightly at the new person who scared the utter shit out of him while he was working on his biology homework. Hyungwon was now seated across the table from Changkyun, and Jooheon was pacing around the room, with his hands pressed together in front of his face.

 

“So Hyungwon, this is your first time?” Hyungwon chokes at that because What the fuck kinda question is that? And he whips his head up to Jooheon, and either he’s just walked onto another variety show he had no idea they were filming or that is not his Jooheon, he has to remind himself

“It’s your first skip, yeah?”

 

“My first what?” Hyungwon starts to look a LOT more confused that Changkyun was when he first appeared, however Changkyun seems to relax at the words

“dude I don’t know what is happening, Kyunnie was on top of me” Changkyun’s eyes widen at that “and the rest of you were playing Mario Kart and then I was here?”

 

Jooheon smiles at Hyungwon and stops pacing, he has his maniacal little grin he gets when something is perfect for him but everyone else is confused as hell or just generally doesn’t care. Changkyun and Hyungwon share a look of confusion at their friend’s antics and look back at him with eyebrows furrowed.

 

“Hey Hyungwon, do you have your stopwatch yet?” Jooheon points his hands at Hyungwon like a dagger, but he just reaches into the pocket of his sweatpants and holds out the old brass stopwatch that poked him in the ass less than 10 minutes ago

“Okay, perfect, we can work with this” Jooheon walks over to the table and kneels down so he can lean his elbows on the surface “Kyunnie can I have some paper and a pen please?”

 

Jooheon takes the paper from the confused Changkyun and starts to scribble out a timeline onto the page with the pencil that was thrown at Hyungwon’s head earlier

 

“So, Hyungwon, this is the timeline that I’ve heard you tell me about so far, way back here” he draws a sharp line on the page “is the furthest you’ve gone so far, Jooseon era only, from what you told me like 3 days ago, and here” he draws a sharp line on the right side of the timeline and circles it “this is where you’re from”

 

Hyungwon leans back in his chair, pulling slightly at his hair because what the fuck, he can travel through time?

 

“Hyungwon, stay with me buddy, you need to know where you are before you leave otherwise you’ll be pretty confused when you try to talk to me again” once Jooheon is sure that Hyungwon is paying full attention, he goes back to drawing a series of lines on the page

“It’s 1960 Hyung, I know it’s confusing and you’re wondering why you’re here-”

“Well, no fucking shit”

“but! As far as I know from what past, uhh, I guess future you? Told me, is that you’re only ever going to go places and times where your group are, you’re never going to be somewhere alone”

 

Hyungwon nods, staring into the space past Changkyun and through the wall

 

“So I’ll be okay? You’ll be there no matter where I go? Uh, when I go?” Jooheon nods excitedly, they’ve got some progress and Hyungwon is no longer losing his shit, Changkyun in the other hand, looks like a kid let loose at a science fair, he has a grin on his face and is nodding furiously.

 

“Hey Hyungwon” Jooheon says softly “can you,, can you open the watch for me?” So Hyungwon slides his nail under the cover to reveal the hands, ticking their way past the 55 on the minute hand. Jooheon’s expression falls ever so slightly, but he smiles at Hyungwon

 

“This shows you how much time you have left here, alright? You’ll be okay as long as you have it, no surprises when that’s here, huh?” Jooheon pats Hyungwon’s hand awkwardly while he smiles and looks down at the table again

“I don’t know when you’ll go to next, I wish I could help you out here, but I have to do biology work with this nerd once you’ve left, so how about we go for a walk around the college while you wait to skip, that way you won’t fall in when you go?”

 

So they do, the three boys leave Changkyun’s notes in the room, which turns out to be a reserved study room attached to their dorms, and they walk out into the courtyard of the gothic style building, where there are seats around a patch of grass in the sun, and students laying on their bags, heads in their books.

 

“Do you think my friends from my time are okay? I mean, like, Kyunnie was laying on me, that couldn’t have gone well when I left” Hyungwon has an air of concern about him now, he tilts his head and looks vaguely sad for his friends that he left. Jooheon looks at Hyungwon and slows to a stop with a sad smile

 

“It’ll be fine Wonnie, I live through it just fine, it’s just a bit of a shock the first time you go” Jooheon wraps his arms around the taller boy’s shoulders “you’ll be okay too” Hyungwon gives Jooheon one of his eye smiles and reaches out to pat Changkyun’s arm, who’s just standing next to the boys awkwardly.

 

“I hope so”

 

 

And when Jooheon opens his eyes, his arms are resting on nothing, thin air in the place of the boy he was hugging just seconds before. He gently moves his arms to run down his face as he sighs, he looks up at Changkyun and gives a half smile, that Changkyun now understands to be the face that often haunts his friend each time Hyungwon leaves him, so he stretches out his hand and takes Jooheon’s hand to lead him back to the study room.

 

 

——

 

 

This time Hyungwon has a grasp on what’s happening to him when the breeze hits in a different direction, and the harsh sun hits his face. He is confused, however, when he sees absolutely no one in sight, and a small cottage on top of the valley he is currently standing in.

 

“Jooheon said there’s always someone here, so where are they?” Hyungwon frowns and starts to feel the beginning of a panic attack set in, he opens his stop watch to be greeted with the minute hand ticking gently over the 15

Fuck, he thinks, bringing his hands up to cover his face, I’ve still got 45 minutes here and I’m alone

 

Deep in thought, Hyungwon doesn’t hear the soft footsteps in the grass behind him, and he doesn’t notice the figure coming to sit down next to him in the base of the valley, until a sturdy hand rests itself in between his shoulder blades

 

“Hey are you okay? You look really lost” just the voice that greets Hyungwon’s ears is enough to bring him back into reality and calm him down in an instant. He takes his hands down from his face and gives a half assed smile to the concerned Hyunwoo looking at the lanky boy in front of him

 

“Hey, I um,,, could use some help if you could?” Hyunwoo smiles at the soft voice of the younger man, and stands back up, offering his hand as help to get Hyungwon up from the grassy ditch he was currently situated in.

 

“Of course, I was just on my way back home. You can come with me back there if you would like” Hyunwoo jokingly puts his hands up and grins “I won’t bite! I promise!” Once Hyungwon is standing up, Hyunwoo claps his hand back onto Hyungwon’s back, content that the stranger to him was going to accompany him home and wasn’t scared at all.

 

“Alright, I’m willing” Hyungwon smiles at his leader’s face, that is all to familiar, and exactly the kind of comfort he needed in the situation that he was alone in the valley without one of his members “which way Hyung? Lead the way!”

 

 

Hyunwoo introduces himself as the two walk up to the small cottage on the hill, Hyungwon doesn’t think to ask when he is, but that’s okay, because all he needs right now is the comfort of Hyunwoo’s presence, and his natural mothering toward the younger boys he cares for.

When the two get into the cottage, Hyunwoo stares for a moment at the blue sneakers that Hyungwon kicks off, but smiles none the less, and leads him inside the small room.

 

“Hyungwon, do you want some tea? And if you want to wait long enough we can have some food too” Hyunwoo walks over to his small fire pot and puts some wood on the slowly dying fire, placing the decorative pot full of water onto the fire. Hyungwon kind of wanders the room, taking in the area, and the simplicity of Hyunwoo’s life in this time, before smiling at his friend

 

“That would be lovely, thank you”

 

Before he knows it, Hyungwon is seated at Hyunwoo’s small table having a cup of tea, and telling Hyunwoo that he’s from a place far in the future, not knowing what reaction he’ll get from his friend. However, in classic Hyunwoo fashion, Hyungwon gets a smile in return, and a gentle nod

 

“You must be tired from your journey then, that’s okay, we can have some food and rest for now” Hyungwon smiles at his leader, and he feels at home for the first time since he skipped, it’s reassuring, because maybe he will be okay throughout all of this. He peaks at his stop watch, with half an hour left in this skip, maybe he would be just fine. So he waits for Hyunwoo to put some rice on to be heated back up, and stretches his arms.

 

“Hey Hyunwoo?” From the stove, Hyungwon gets a gentle hum in reply “can we eat out the front of your house? I can’t stay for much longer and I’d like to enjoy the view with you” Hyungwon gets the sound of footsteps in reply as Hyunwoo settles down next to him at the table

“We can do that, of course” he smiles at Hyungwon, leaving a warm feeling of home in the younger’s chest “If it makes you happy Hyungwon, we can eat outside”

 

So the two wait for the rice to heat back up, and take their bowls and spoons outside, to sit on the porch where the view of the valley below them was nicest. Hyungwon slips his shoes back on to make sure he won’t lose them if he skips, and sits next to the elder, already enjoying his rice

“Thank you for the food Hyunwoo, I really appreciate it” And Hyungwon tucks in.

 

While they watch the afternoon sun shine across the landscape, Hyungwon learns that this Hyunwoo is a farmer, and he’s staying here for the moment while he works, but he’s not alone here, he assures Hyungwon, Kihyun visits him every other day with supplies and for company, and Minhyuk works with him on the farm, keeping him occupied with his antics on the daily. Hyungwon feels comforted by that, because maybe they’re not so different across history, it will definitely make it easier for him to stay sane.

 

“Where I come from, you and Kihyun basically look after us, not much we can do without you guys after Jooheon and Minhyuk almost burned down our house last month” Hyunwoo laughs at that, and pats Hyungwon on the shoulder

“I’m sure you’ll be fine if you let Kihyun teach you, he’s lovely” Hyungwon nods and spoons more rice into his mouth, enjoying the comfort meal after a stressful hour or so

 

“Maybe one day he’ll show me, huh-“

 

The spoon clatters into the wooden bowl still half full with rice, as it falls the few inches from where Hyungwon’s lap was, onto the wood of the porch. Hyunwoo sits alone again, looking out across the landscape, where he can see Kihyun’s figure approaching over the other side of the valley. He waves to his friend and smiles down at the bowl of rice, where Hyungwon was just moments ago

 

“Save travels, friend”

 

 

——

 

 

 

The third time it happens Hyungwon is a little more prepared for what happens, but he was not prepared to fall on his arse in the middle of a palace hallway, making a loud thump and alerting anyone in the rooms around him that someone had just fallen ungracefully in the hall. What Hyungwon was definitely not prepared for, however, was the sound of someone getting up in a rush, in the room next to him, and practically running to the screen door.

Hopefully not someone unfamiliar to him, he hopes, because the last thing he needs is to be imprisoned by the guards of some palace, that would absolutely be the worst thing to happen, and especially explaining to the guards if he skipped back here, why he suddenly escaped the prisons.

 

When the footsteps stop suddenly, Hyungwon finds enough sense in his mildly panicked brain to push himself out of view of the doorway, against the wall. But the one thing his brain struggles to process in his mild panic, is the soft whisper behind the wall

 

“Is it Hyungwon?” It’s Hoseok.

 

Hyungwon finds his body immediately relaxing as the door slides open and the gentle smiling face of Minhyuk peaks out the door, and locks eyes with his friend.

 

“Oh thank god” Hyungwon gets up slowly, as not to make too much noise, or cause any more damage to the hallway by falling through a wall or something equally detrimental. He walks over the the open door and immediately embraces Minhyuk, who seems a little taken aback at first, but welcomes him with a soft laugh and a hug in return. When he pulls back and looks over Minhyuk’s shoulder, Hyungwon is greeted by Hoseok with his long hair loose over his shoulders, and fine hanbok dressing his toned form, Hoseok smiles like the sun at his friend, gesturing for his friend to come into the room and take a seat next to him.

 

“You haven’t been back for a while Hyungwon-ah, come on let’s have some tea and tell eachother what’s happened” Minhyuk ushers Hyungwon inside the beautiful palace room, while its too ornate for a slave’s quarters, Hyungwon’s brain registers, this isn’t full royalty living in this room, are either of his friends of high blood in this time? Minhyuk is a Lee after all

“Oh you’ve got that look in your eye again, is this your first time here? It’s okay, father won’t worry about you, it’s not like you’re going to hurt the crown prince or anything”

 

Minhyuk smiles like he didn’t just confirm he was the crown prince, sneaking away from the guards to hang out with his friend in a building where he shouldn’t be, and he laughs. Hoseok lightly hits Minhyuk’s arm as he takes a seat leaning against his friend’s arm, always one for the dramatics, Hyungwon thinks

 

“Hyuk, this is my third skip, I’m not quite sure what you’re talking about” Hoseok’s face softens at this, and he takes his tall friend’s hand in his own, mindlessly stroking patterns into his palm with his fingers.

 

“Hyungwon-ah” Hoseok says softly “you’ll always come back, we’re not going anywhere.” Hyungwon nods his head to that, one quick nod, maybe Jooheon has met me many times before, that’s how he knew so much “You were here only a few days ago Hyungwon, you’ll be okay, you don’t just abandon us, ever” At that, Hyungwon releases a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding, he lets Hoseok continue to play with his hand, and he brushes his mess of pink hair back with his free hand. He face slowly creeps into a smile, and his friends recognise that he’s comfortable completely with where he is now.

 

“So, what have you two been up to here?”

 

As the three sit in the room, softly telling each-other stories of their antics, Hyungwon and Minhyuk end up leaning on Hoseok from either side, effectively sandwiching his strong body in the affection they hold for him. Maybe we can be like my timeline all over again, Hyungwon hopes that he can keep this friendship in every skip.

 

He learns that Minhyuk isn’t actually the crown prince, he’s just a true bone that likes to make a fuss around the palace, by stealing the head guard and pulling Hoseok aside to relax in a hidden room with Minhyuk. Hyungwon laughs softly, his Minhyuk wasn’t too different from this time, although he normally pulled Hoseok out of their dance rooms to hide and play Nintendo instead. 

Hoseok laughs as he tells Hyungwon of the day last month where the head guards and the heads of palace entertainment, Jihoon and Seungcheol, were planning an event for the birthday of the crown princess, when Hyungwon skipped into the middle of the meeting, taking out a table with his entrance, and effectively scaring the life out of everyone there, except Hoseok, before skipping within two minutes, before anyone knew how to react to his entrance.

 

“Still as graceful as a baby deer, every single time” Minhyuk laughs loud at Hoseok’s comment “Seriously, I think I’ve seen you skip maybe once still standing when you arrived” Hyungwon’s face flushes at this, he hoped that maybe he wouldn’t be so unprepared after these first few skips, surely he’d get used to it eventually, right?

 

He sneaks a look at his pocket watch, because his brain tells him that he’s already been here for at least 15 minutes, surely he’s due to leave soon. But much to Hyungwon’s surprise, he’s still got 40 minutes on the clock, so he sits up a little and leans his head on Hoseok’s shoulder, and smiles at Minhyuk, who raises his eyebrows a little, checking if he’s okay, a gesture Hyungwon is very familiar with from their long nights spent practicing together. Hyungwon nods and smiles.

 

Hyungwon lets himself relax for a bit as they exchange quips about how graceful Hoseok was, when Yoo Kihyun visited the palace to act as the medic for the true bones, who he was often seen messing around with, instead of giving them medicines for their colds, and from what Hyungwon gathers, there’s something about his beauty in this time that can sweep Hoseok off his feet. Quite literally, it seems, because he fell into the stream that runs through the centre of the palace.

In return for the story, Hoseok tells Hyungwon of the first time that Minhyuk had encountered him, and was so fascinated by his half pink, half black hair, that he was utterly useless for the rest of the day as he tried to figure out why his hair was like that and why the tall boy had appeared in his rooms before leaving as swiftly as he had come when he saw Minhyuk, half asleep on his bed roll.

 

After a while, Hyungwon checks his stop watch, only to be greeted with the hand ticking past the 45 slowly, surprising the boy. He still had fifteen minutes to enjoy this place, so he let his curiosity over take his brain.

 

“Can we take a walk around the courtyard?” He suggested, placing his hand on Hoseok’s knee, and looking at the long haired Minhyuk in front of him, maybe he should tell his Minhyuk to grow his hair out like this, it was lovely, all tied up, Hyungwon smiled at his friends and slowly got up, stretching like a cat once he was standing.

 

“I don’t see why not” Minhyuk nods and helps Hoseok up from the ground, then helps the guard leader tie his loose hair up into a full bun on top of his head, with skilled hands that have practiced that many times before.

 

The three wander through the empty halls of the small building, which Hoseok explains are the rooms that the people who work at the palace are allowed to use for leisure, and once Minhyuk opens the door for them to go outside, Hyungwon is greeted by a beautiful courtyard, dusted with cherry blossoms, and with some familiar faces relaxing on the grass in the shade.

 

Hyungwon spots Seungcheol and Jeonghan sitting against a palace wall, laughing together and sharing the warm afternoon together, Jeonghan’s hair flies around loosely in the breeze, and Seungcheol ties it up loosely with the ribbon he had wrapped around his wrist. The two wave when they see the three boys leaving the building, and Hyungwon feels like this timeline may be his favourite to visit, because as far as he knows, his friends are all nearby, and they may all be in the city nearby if they’re not in the palace itself.

“Hey Hyungwon are you okay? Do you want to see the rest of the palace for now?”

Hyungwon smiles at Minhyuk with the energy of the sun, and the three boys walk around to the main courtyard, where people wander around, doing their own things, a few people wave to the boys, and Hyungwon waves back, small unsure smiles given to everyone, because surely he’ll know these people from his skips in his future, and there’s no harm in being kind to everyone he sees. He’s utterly happy when he sees younger boys playing chase around a tall man in armour, who’s laughing his heart out, and trying to capture the boys in his arms

 

“Minhyung! Donghyuck! Please stop you little crickets” The young boys just laugh and change their course to run past Minhyuk, Hoseok and Hyungwon, and the armoured man they were running around just stops for a second, squatting down and laughing to himself before getting up and running after the boys

 

“Good luck catching them Taeyong” Hoseok laughs, and pats his friend’s shoulder as he runs past at the pace of the young boys “I think the sneaky boys ran too fast for my top guard like you”

Taeyong laughs at Hoseok and keeps up his pursuit of the little boys who giggle manically as they sprint away from the elder.

 

“Those two are a handful, I don’t know how Taeyong deals with them, honestly” Minhyuk smiles at the boys as they run around behind the buildings “they’re definitely Lee’s though, my aunty had a hard time dealing with Taeyong and I at that age too, we definitely had too much energy”

 

The trio continue their stroll around the palace, greeting people and letting Hyungwon take in the sight of the gardens in spring, when they go into the flower garden, Hyungwon curses his allergies, as he feels a sneeze build in his sinuses. Hoseok laughs at his face, and just as Hyungwon goes to sneeze, he skips. Leaving the Hoseok and Minhyuk laughing at his face, and blessing the thin air for the sneeze that didn’t make its way out in time.

 

“Bless you Hyungwo- oh, he’s gone” Hoseok smiles fondly at the spot where Hyungwon was standing, and takes Minhyuk’s arm, and the two continue their walk around the palace, commenting about things they should show Hyungwon next time he comes for a visit.

 

 

——

 

 

Hyungwon sneezes once he’s skipped, effectively scaring the ever loving shit out of Jooheon, who was standing in the kitchen, alone, holding his sandwich, and leaning against the counter. His mini heart attack results in said sandwich being dropped on the floor, and a string of curses leaving Jooheon’s mouth, alerting all the other boys in the house to the sudden appearance of their friend.

 

“Language!” Hyunwoo shouts from his spot on the floor, still near the television, with a the ‘scolding parent’ look directed at Jooheon, but the look on his face when he sees Hyungwon, Hyungwon decides, is the best thing about coming back to this time, because his face drops, and after a single beat, he scrambles to get up, throwing the game controller out of his hands before running over to Hyungwon to crush him in a desperate hug

“You’re back, you came back, I was so worried” Hyunwoo whispers into the shoulder of his friend, but when he pulls back from the hug he looks utterly confused.

 

“Where did you even go? You just disappeared?” Hyungwon smiles at Hyunwoo and looks past his shoulder into the lounge, where a slightly distraught Changkyun is standing, staring at him as if he saw a ghost, and Kihyun appears behind Changkyun as he barrels down the hallway from the bedrooms, flashing a grin at Hyungwon when they make eye contact.

 

“HYUNGWON IS BACK, GUYS” Kihyun screams down the hall, and Hyungwon can faintly hear the sounds of the shower being turned off and someone rushing around in the bathroom, taking bottles with him. Hyungwon just smiles and Changkyun crosses the lounge room to stand next to Hyunwoo, and slaps Hyungwon’s arm, while looking like a mildly offended middle aged woman who didn’t get the kimchi she ordered last week from the market.

“Okay what the fuck Hyungwon, I try to show you a picture, and you just, disappear? A little extreme if you ask me” Changkyun looks still mildly offended, but a smile is creeping up his face “dude you could have just said nah, or ignored it, 2 and a half hours of fucking off is a little goddamn extreme, don’t you think?” Hyungwon just laughs at Changkyun and pats the younger boy’s head

 

“Kyunnie I didn’t mean to, I almost got murdered by past you anyway, so it kinda makes up for it”

 

Changkyun and Hyunwoo look even more confused by that, and Kihyun pipes up from the doorway to the lounge room

 

“What do you mean past Changkyun, Hyungwon?” Jooheon and Hyunwoo hum, confirming they were thinking the same question, and Changkyun tilts his head in question, like a puppy, no matter when I find him, Hyungwon thinks. He fishes the stop watch from his pocket and holds it out to his friends, so they can see it

 

“I keep skipping through time, I’ll try to explain it better another time, but I seem to jump through time to when there are past reincarnations of you guys” as he finishes his explanation, Hoseok runs down the hallway, and Hyungwon grins and walks past Hyunwoo and Changkyun to go and greet him with a hug.

 

“Fair enough, I guess” says Kihyun, with a nod, as Hyungwon goes to step over the threshold into the lounge room to greet Hoseok, but when Kihyun looks up from his nod, Hyungwon is gone again, and Hoseok stops suddenly in the middle of the lounge room, looking like a lost puppy. Jooheon, Kihyun and Changkyun mirror his expression of confusion, with tears beginning to well up in Changkyun’s eyes as Minhyuk runs down the hall yelling excitedly.

 

“HYUUUNGWOOOON-AH~” Minhyuk’s excitement is cut short, however, when he sees Hoseok standing lost in the lounge room, and he sees his friend’s confused faces, standing in the kitchen

“Where’s Hyungwon?” He dares to speak up to his friends, confused, because didn’t Kihyun say he was back? Then where is he?

 

“It’s okay, he’ll be back” Hyunwoo says, steeling himself up just a little bit, before facing all his friends, and resting a sturdy hand on Changkyun’s back

“He said he always comes back, he’s just skipping through time, surely that can’t do that much harm to him, right? If we’re always there when he travels?”

 

Jooheon moves from his position at the counter top, where he’s still staring, kind of disappointed at his half-eaten sandwich on the floor, and pipes up, with a small smile

“He’ll be okay, if any of us could deal with being thrown from time to time, it would be Hyungwon, and if any of us are half as smart as we are now, in the past, he should be okay”

 

“He’ll figure something out, surely”

 

 

——

 

 

Hyungwon curses himself as he feels himself skip, why didn’t he check the stopwatch when he got back to his time? He could have greeted everyone properly, but at least he got to explain what was happening to his friends, hopefully they wouldn’t be too worried for him.

Before Hyungwon could think any further to how his friends were going to fare without him, he realised that he was walking when he skipped, and was currently about to collide with an unsuspecting Kihyun, who was bowled over almost the second that Hyungwon skipped, and onto the paved ground of the alleyway the two were currently standing in. With a very lanky Hyungwon following him to the ground, right on top of him

 

“Oh my god are you okay? I’m so sorry” Hyungwon scrambles off his small friend and tries to dust the dirt off his clothes, before offering him a hand to get up. Kihyun, however, just looks up at Hyungwon and furrows his eyebrows, almost in a state of shock from the sudden collision with a person, in the very empty alleyway, which he goes down everyday to get home. He takes a few seconds, and then gets up without taking Hyungwon’s hand, to which Hyungwon just stares at his hand, and clasps it in his other hand before nodding and looking at his friend

 

“I’m okay, I think” Kihyun does a little pat down of his own body and nods before looking up to the taller man “are you okay? You must have been in a rush, you really took me by surprise there” he does a once over and puts his hand gently on Hyungwon’s arm

 

“I’m okay, thanks, it’s not the first time today I’ve taken a tumble” He laughs gently and smiles at Kihyun, ignoring the sting of his palm, where his hand took the brunt of his weight, and where Kihyun didn’t. Hyungwon looks up the alleyway, which looks like it could be in the middle of a small town and back at Kihyun

“You were probably going somewhere when I knocked into you! Sorry!” Hyungwon looks down the other way and spots a small cart full of fabric, neatly folded and stacked, finer than Hyungwon had seen outside of the old stores his mother used to take him to, where the ladies woven fabric by hand.

“Oh is this yours?” He tilts his head a little at Kihyun “Would you like me to help you with it?”

 

Kihyun smiles gratefully at the new person before him, and nods a little

“If you have nowhere to be I would appreciate that” he dusted himself off again and walks to where the cart is sitting, surprising unharmed from the little tumble the two took “It’s just down here, I was going to stop at my shop and unload these before I go home” Hyungwon follows and takes the cart up, following Kihyun and wheeling the cart down the paved alleyway to the little door with the hand painted sign for a fabric store above it.

 

“Where do you want me to put the cart?” Hyungwon quizzes Kihyun when they get to the door of the shop, but instead of a response, Kihyun just pats the taller’s shoulder and takes the cart from him, putting it into a little alcove at the side of the shop.

 

“Can you grab some of these fabrics for me please? It’ll be a big help” So Hyungwon takes the fine fabrics left in the cart by Kihyun, and brings them inside, where Hyungwon is greeted with rows and rows of fine fabrics in the most lovely and homely fabric store that Hyungwon has ever seen. Right in the centre of the store, there’s a large, solid wooden table that Kihyun is leaning against

“Just put them here, it’ll be fine”

Hyungwon gently puts his bundle of fabric down next to the pile that Kihyun carried in and leans against the table, smiling at Kihyun.

 

“Thanks for the help, I appreciate it” Kihyun smiles “would you like to stay for some tea?”

 

“I’d love to”

 

The two end up seated at the table with cups of tea discussing Kihyun’s shop, which Hyungwon discovers he inherited from his mother, who left for the country months ago, Jooheon helps him out occasionally with restocking and manning the shop when Kihyun is unwell, but he wasn’t able to give him help today, so Hyungwon’s arrival was well timed.

 

When Hyungwon checks his watch, to see that he has just overhalf an hour left, Kihyun perks up at the sight of the intricately carved design

 

“What’s that Hyungwon?” He holds his hand out, hoping that Hyungwon would let him inspect the odd device he was holding, much to his surprise, Hyungwon handed it over just as easily as he had asked to look at it

 

“It tells me how much time I’ve got left here before I have to go” he smiles at Kihyun sadly, almost like he knows that it’ll be upsetting when he goes, but Kihyun doesn’t look sad that his new friend will have to leave, he just spins the device around in his hand, staring at the swirling carvings on the cover of the watch, and tracing them lightly with his fingers. With gentle hands, once Kihyun is satisfied he’s seen all of the detail on the watch, he hands it back to Hyungwon.

 

“It’s really cool, where did you get it?”

 

“I found it poking me while I was laying down with my friend” Kihyun raises his eyebrows at that with a small smirk “not like that, we were just resting and I found it on the couch, before I skipped to a different time” once Hyungwon let’s the words ‘different time’ slip from his mouth, he realises he hadn’t yet explained to this Kihyun that he travels through time without control. Expecting some shock he looks up at his friend, who is just nodding eagerly for him to continue, so he does.

 

Hyungwon explains that each time he skips, he only goes as far as his time, and travels to the Jooseon era at the earliest, he explains that each time he goes somewhere, the watch shows him just how long he has left in that time, Hyungwon doesn’t think if the watch gave him his gift, or if the gift came with a second gift of his watch. Hyungwon just turns the watch in his hands, not touching the button on the top of it, or the loop where he should probably put a necklace or something through it to make sure he doesn’t get it lost somewhen he can’t go back to.

 

“Hyungwon” Kihyun hums, after listening to Hyungwon’s understanding of the watch and his time travels

“what does the button on the top do?” Hyungwon looks up at Kihyun in surprise because how has he not considered that it could do anything while he was here?

 

“I,, i have no idea?” He holds the watch and opens the cover, he has 20 minutes left here, so what harm could come of testing the button of the watch. For good measure, and to not be absolutely propelled into something or someone arse first again, Hyungwon stands up next to Kihyun

“Let’s see what it does, shall we Kihyunnie?”

 

He presses the button at the top of the watch down, and when he releases it, Kihyun is alone in his shop once more. He just chuckles and collects Hyungwon’s empty tea cup off the table

 

“Makes you skip, huh? A reset button, interesting.”

 

——

 

 

“Oh dang, it makes me skip”

 

Hyungwon looks around the room he’s manifested in, and recognises it as a similar building to the one from his first skip, and when he turns around, Jooheon is sitting on a couch, he puts his bookmark in the book he was reading and looks up at Hyungwon.

 

“Hi?” Hyungwon waves at Jooheon and smiles at him, hoping this Jooheon has met him before “What are you doing in my dorm?” And all Hyungwon’s hopes go out the window, he hopes this isn’t going to be a hard conversation, for the sake of his sanity.

 

“Okay, so before I start, please don’t fight me or something, I don’t know if I can deal with that today” Jooheon just nods and waves his hand for Hyungwon to continue “I’m a time traveller and I keep skipping to different times without controlling it, and it’s been a really long day” Hyungwon smiles and rubs at the back of his pink hair.

 

“You’re a time traveller?” Jooheon raises his eyebrows at Hyungwon, who nods “Okay, neat, take a seat my dude”

 

Hyungwon’s mouth hangs open at that, this Jooheon really has all the chill that Changkyun doesn’t have in this time

“Really?”

 

Jooheon laughs and shuffles further over on the couch, patting the spot next to him

“Really man, take a seat, you must be tired”

 

Hyungwon can’t find it in himself to argue with his friend, so he strolls over and sits down on the couch, looking at the worn book his friend was reading

“What are you reading Jooheon?” His friend doesn’t look at all shocked that Hyungwon knows his name, and simply angles his book so that Hyungwon can see the cover. It’s The Fellowship of the Ring, which is ironic, Hyungwon thinks, because his Jooheon has watched the film more times than he can count.

“You enjoying it so far?”

 

“Yeah, I am, you should read it,,,” Jooheon looks at Hyungwon questioningly

 

“Hyungwon” he supplies

 

“Well, Hyungwon, you should read it, it’s quite good so far” Hyungwon hums, because he’s seen it many times before, it may have taken an eternity to watch, he still enjoyed it, mainly because it was Jooheon’s favourite.

 

The two fall into comfortable silence as Jooheon continues reading, Hyungwon looks at his watch, surprised that it’s just ticked over the 5 minute mark. He still has a while here so he might as well relax, so he leans back in the couch and reads the book over Jooheon’s shoulder, which Jooheon seems to notice, angling the book so that Hyungwon can see the pages easier.

 

“Thanks” mumbles Hyungwon, now caught up in the journey of Baggins, as he so often is with Jooheon. The two stay like that for a while, time passing, and enjoying the book together, and in the silence and calm, after a day of stress, Hyungwon sinks further into the couch, slowly leaning some weight on Jooheon’s arm, feeling safe with his friend, and he falls asleep.

 

He vaguely registers Jooheon shifting at some point to hold Hyungwon under one of his arms, but he finally rests.

 

 

——

 

 

Hyungwon skips while he is asleep. He doesn’t notice the lack of Jooheon’s arm wrapped around him securely, but he shifts awake ever so slightly as he feels two strong arms scoop him up from the ground and hold his lanky form against his chest.

 

“Won-ah you need to stop doing this buddy, be more careful about where you sleep okay?” The deep tones of Hoseok’s voice resonate through his body, and Hyungwon relaxes more into Hoseok’s hold, wrapping his arms over his shoulders and humming in response.

 

Somewhere in Hyungwon’s brain, foggy with sleep, he registers Hoseok slipping a door open with his foot, and the warmth of a fire enveloping his body, as Hoseok places him down on a bed roll. When Hyungwon opens his eyes and stretches, he meets the eyes of the one and only Shin Hoseok, clad in his head guard uniform, taking it off and changing into sleep clothes, and letting his hair loose. Hoseok gives Hyungwon a soft smile and gestures for him to roll over.

 

“You’re safe to sleep here Won-ah, just be careful you don’t hit Kihyunnie when you roll over, okay?”

 

Hyungwon turns slowly and comes face to face with Kihyun, sprawled out in sleep, his long hair all over his face, and when Hyungwon shifts to find a more comfortable position, Kihyun opens his eyes a little and looks at Hyungwon for a second, before beginning his journey back to dream land.

 

“Hey Hyungwon” he breathes out, and scoots closer to his tall friend, throwing his arm over his body under the blankets.

Hyungwon lets himself drift back to sleep, minutes later he vaguely registers the warmth of Hoseok on his other side, and then he’s completely out to it.

 

Hyungwon dreams of Changkyun hanging out with him on his bed at home, and the warm comfort of his bed.

 

——

 

Hyungwon sleeps through his next skip, deep in sleep, absorbed in his dream of home. So when he appears in Changkyun’s bed, curled up in the same position he was between his friends, he doesn’t know that Changkyun clutches his sleeping form for dear life for a minute, and he doesn’t know that when Jooheon comes to check on Changkyun, as he always does since Hyungwon started skipping, he gently helps Changkyun change Hyungwon into a softer shirt, and sweatpants, before joining them both in bed, warm and comfortable together in the double bed, curled up, and home. Hyungwon sleeps well, surrounded by his friends.

 

 

——

 

 

The last thing Hyunwoo expected when he was coming back to the stall from putting his cart away, was to find a pink haired boy curled up asleep on the cobble stones. He looks around and crouches down next to the boy, debating whether he should get him up and ask him if he’s okay or not. Hyunwoo doesn’t get to make a decision though, as the boy stirs in his sleep, so Hyunwoo steps back for a second

A cool spring breeze brushes over Hyungwon’s face, waking him up gently. The cobblestones poke into his hip as he opens his eyes, stretching out and sitting up, when he looks around from his seat on the ground he feels a gentle tap on his shoulder, so he turns around to look at the form of his leader standing behind him.

 

“Hi Hyung” Hyungwon says, voice husky from sleep, rubbing his eyes, then his hair, before slowly standing up next to Hyunwoo “is it morning already?” Hyunwoo looks at Hyungwon with utter shock, because this boy just woke up on the street, and called him Hyung with no care, as if he was the closest thing to a brother he had. He gets his wits about him after a second though, because this boy doesn’t look to have anything on him to eat, and he should help him.

 

“Hi,,, do you want to come with me and eat something for breakfast?”

He softly suggests, much to Hyungwon’s delight, when he realises that he probably hasn’t met his Hyung in this time yet, and that probably threw him off a little, this early in the morning.

When Hyungwon nods in response, Hyunwoo gives him a soft smile and walks to the direction of the sounds of people moving crates and livestock, probably a market, Hyungwon realises, so he follows Hyunwoo in between the houses, and into the open market square, where the traders are setting up their stalls under the morning sun.

 

When Hyungwon sees Kihyun and Changkyun sitting at one stall with many wooden crates of fruit in front of it, he relaxes and speeds up a bit, beelining through the small crowd of people wandering the market to see his friends. Once he gets there, Hyunwoo tells him to take a seat on one of the free crates behind the stall, and the two boys already seated smile at him and wave a little bit.

“Hey, I’m Hyungwon” they two introduce themselves, and explain that they’re working at the market until the afternoon, and Hyungwon smiles at them, offering to help out with their work if they need it.

 

“Much appreciated Hyungwon” Kihyun smiles at him, and looks over his shoulder to see Hyunwoo washing some fruit for Hyungwon to eat.

 

Once Hyunwoo was back, the three fell into quiet conversation with Hyungwon contributing every now and then, as he ate the pears that Hyunwoo had given him. He was grateful that his friend was kind enough to give him food for breakfast, thankful that no matter what time he found himself in, Hyunwoo was always ready to provide him with something to eat, and a friend for while he was there.

 

“Hey Hyungwon?” Changkyun placed his hand on Hyungwon’s shoulder and smiled “Do you think you could go and get us some fresh water from the pump over there?” He pointed to a small pump on the other side of the market square, near where him and Hyunwoo had entered the square earlier.

 

“Yeah, sure, where’s the container?” Hyungwon got up and stretched, looks around him for a pale or something to collect water in, Kihyun hands him a wooden pale and smiles at Hyungwon

 

“Thanks, don’t take too long” Hyungwon waves the comment off, but puts his watch into his back pocket and walks around the stall to begin to push through the growing morning crowd to get to the water for his friends, he walks through a small group, as the boys follow him with their eyes from the stall, standing up in shock when they watch Hyungwon vanish into thin air, and the pale fall to the ground.

 

“What the fuck? What just happened, what the fuck?” Changkyun walks slowly through the crowd to where Hyungwon dropped the pale, looking everywhere for the missing boy, eyes not finding him anywhere in the crowd. No one else seemed to notice the sudden disappearance, he thinks, as he walks back to the stall, hands slightly shaking from shock.

The three boys look utterly confused until a man wearing hanbok from the palace comes up to their stall.

 

“I’m Jihoon, I’ll explain everything you just saw”

 

 

 

——

 

 

 

Hyungwon keeps skipping, always with different time intervals, sometimes he meets Hyunwoo and Kihyun for 5 minutes as they move supplies into Hyunwoo’s little house on the top of the valley, and sometimes he gets an hour to spend with his friends in his timeline. He still can’t figure out what makes him skip, so at Changkyun’s suggestion, he keeps a journal with him, keeping track of when he travels to, and who he’s closest to at that time, making sure to be gentle when he meets a member for the first time, trying to keep track of how long he has, and explains that he’ll be back, each time. There’s a few times where Hyungwon decides that he should leave as soon as he gets to a time, like when he appears in the middle of Jooheon’s exam, and has to leave straight away, and the day he arrived in a bath house, and decided he probably didn’t want to see everyone else there, so he left as swiftly as he came, much to the disappointment and amusement of Hoseok, who was relaxing in the spring water, as his friend manifested and left almost instantly.

 

It became easier, but still not preferable, he has his friends everywhen he goes, but he doesn’t have his friends

 

——

 

 

 

Kihyun, Minhyuk and Jooheon file into the Ferris wheel, and take their seats, laughing and having a ball, seeing their town at night from the height, in their summer break. The wheel takes regular breaks going up as more people are let onto the road, so the boys can enjoy the view without worrying too much. The ride comes to a stop at the top, and Jooheon turns to look at the view, when he stretches he feels the cart jolt a little, and a long arm sneak it’s way over his shoulder.

 

“Hey Hyungwon” the three boys smile and greet their friend, who for once, was actually sitting when he manifested, so he had little issues this time, and could join in enjoying the view. He joins in the flow of the conversation naturally, and sits with the boys as they go around the wheel, chatting about visiting their parents in the break, and joking about bad teachers they had in their courses in the past year. When the ride comes to a stop, the man operating it doesn’t question it when 4 boys exit the cart instead of 3.

 

The four of them walk around the carnival, enjoying the light shows and the music playing, Minhyuk brings the boys candy floss and they enjoy it together, catching up on the time Hyungwon, even though he saw them yesterday in his time. When Minhyuk suggests that they play some games to win plush toys, they all agree, and walk over to the water ballon dart game.

 

“Hey Hyungwon, want a token to have a shot?” Jooheon turns to where Hyungwon was, smile on his face, and token in his hand, but Hyungwon is already gone, that’s okay though, the boys are used to it by now.

 

Kihyun wins a big plush frog, and Minhyuk suggests they call it Hyungwon, they all agree and Hyungwon earns his place on the couch in Jooheon’s dorm, waiting for him since they first met.

 

 

——

 

 

Hyungwon opens his eyes to agree to his friends and finds himself in a brick alleyway, surrounded by houses and yards, he turns around and finds himself being pulled into the embrace of Hoseok and Kihyun, Changkyun standing just to the side, with his mouth open, but slowly turning into a smile.

 

“Hyungwon-ah! Come on I’ve got something for you!” Hoseok pulls on Hyungwon’s arm, and next thing he knows, he’s sitting outside with Kihyun and Changkyun as Hoseok frantically searches inside for whatever he has for Hyungwon. When Hyungwon looks at Changkyun he’s practically buzzing, and Hyungwon wonders if he’s met this Changkyun before, probably not, he decides, from the flitting of his eyes, and the look that he gets whenever he wants to ask a question.

Hyungwon decides Changkyun’s probably not going to ask unless prompted, so Hyungwon waves his hand forward

 

“I won’t bite Kyunnie, what’s up?” Changkyun stops for a second, but Hyungwon and Kihyun can see the energy behind his eyes as he word vomits, asking all the questions that built up in his brain in the 5 minutes Hyungwon has been in this time

 

“Why’s your hair pink? You’re a time traveller? That’s so cool, oh my god! Have you been here before? How does Hoseok know you? Do you skip when you sleep? Are there more versions of me? Can I time skip too?” Hyungwon just laughs at Changkyun and reaches out to ruffle his hair, Changkyun blushing furiously, but looking genuinely curious like a little kid let loose in a museum.

 

“My hair’s pink because I had my friends help me make it white and then we painted it with dye” Kyunie’s eyes are open as he nods furiously at the new information “I’m a time traveller I guess, and I come here all the time, we hang out a lot you know! I skip just to where you guys and some of my other friends are, so we’re always together and there’s nearly always someone I know. So yes, there’s plenty of other versions of you Kyunnie, and of Kihyunnie, and Hoseok too!”

Kihyun nods along, having heard the story many times, before, and Changkyun is still looking intent, like Hyungwon is a god, providing him with divine knowledge. Hoseok comes out of the house and answers Changkyun’s last two questions before Hyungwon has a chance to

 

“Yes Kyunnie, he skips while he sleeps, that’s why you can’t stay over some times. We need all the beds we can get just in case. And it’s just him as far as we know” Hoseok stops behind Hyungwon and lays his hands on his shoulders, and Hyungwon feels another weight fall against his chest, so he looks down at it.

 

Kihyun smiles at the gemstone hanging from Hoseok’s hand and gestures for Hoseok to put it on him

“We found this at the market the other day, Hoseok-ah wanted to give it to you.” Hyungwon feels Hoseok’s hands work expertly to tie the necklace around his neck “it’s jade, for luck you know, never know what’s gonna happen out there”

Hyungwon’s hand finds the gem and he holds it close, closing his eyes and thanking his friend

 

“Hyungwon-ah?” Changkyun speaks up again, Hyungwon hums in response “Am I your best friend in your time?” Hyungwon laughs at him, and nods confidently

 

“You’re my room mate and best friend Kyunnie, I wouldn’t have it any other way” Changkyun seems satisfied with that answer and nods his head, clapping his hands together for dramatic effect.

 

“I’m glad Hyungwon-ah, you’re so co-“

 

Hyungwon doesn’t get to hear the rest of the sentence, as he skips again, but he laughs anyway, Changkyun was really his light when things started to get a bit boring again.

 

But really how could things get boring when you skip time?

 

 

——

 

 

When Hyungwon skips again, he’s in the hallway of the dorm, sitting cross legged on the floor, he can hear his friends playing Mario Kart on the television, and the general noise of Hyunwoo and Kihyun making something to eat

 

“I wonder when he’ll be back, it’s been almost a week Minhyuk, he hasn’t been gone this long for a while” Hyungwon tenses up at that, he knows that at first he was only gone for max a day from this time, and he knows that Changkyun struggles when he’s gone for over a day, having one of his main support people gone.

“He’ll be back soon, Jooheon, surely” It’s Hyunwoo, making sure they’re all okay

 

Hyungwon checks his stopwatch, it’s only just ticked past one, he has some time, so he gets up from the floor, ungracefully, hitting his elbow on the wall

 

“Ah fuck that hurt” he mumbles, rubbing his elbow, but as soon as the words leave his mouth, all the boys in the lounge become silent, he can hear someone get up and sprint to the hall.

Jooheon rounds the corner and spots Hyungwon instantly, and when Hyungwon opens his arm for a hug, a teary Jooheon sprints into his arms, crushing him in a hug.

 

“You’re back, thank god” he squeezes Jooheon and rocks the two of them lightly back and forth, while Jooheon breathes in his scent

“Dude you smell like pig fat”

Hyungwon loses it, right there, because of course that’s the first thing Jooheon says to him, after a week in his timeline, he’s almost crying with laughter when he sees 5 more boys round the corner at varying speeds to come and crush him in a hug, then he’s crying because he’s so glad that he has these boys to come back to, his 6 members, his everything.

 

Once they’re all content that they’ve crushed Hyungwon enough (with some pleading from Jooheon because he can’t breathe), they all move back into the lounge, and Kihyun attempts to save the food that burnt while they were dealing with their friend’s return. He throws it out and opts to just give everyone crackers and dip to eat, and the left over fried rice from the night before, before he settles down on the couch on top of Hyungwon, which, as Changkyun points out, is not the best idea, with Hyungwon’s track record of disappearing mid-cuddle. But Kihyun does it anyway, making himself comfortable in Hyungwon’s lap and leaning back into his chest.

 

“Hey Won-ah? I was doing some research in sci-fi stuff again, and what if your watch makes you skip?” Changkyun lays back so his head rests in between Hyungwon and Kihyun’s legs, and tilts his head back awkwardly to look at Hyungwon, which fails, he just looks like a goof.

 

Hyungwon thinks for a second, because he only started skipping when he found the pocket watch, so maybe Changkyun has a valid point

 

“I don’t know Kyunnie, do we wanna test it out?” There’s not much to lose, thinks Hyungwon, so he hands the watch to Changkyun, and he sits back, arms resting loosely around Kihyun’s waist as everyone else decides to play Mario Kart and tell Hyungwon about the antics of their works and their uni courses. Hyungwon finds out that Changkyun started taking a literary course in the specialty of sci-fi to try to understand why his time travel happens, and that’s how he came up with the idea of the watch making him skip again and again because he was in contact with it. And Hyunwoo tells Hyungwon that he and Hoseok had seen an Avengers film and suggested that time in non-linear, but for Hyungwon only. Kihyun just thought it was pretty cool that he could time skip, and was gonna be pretty excited if he could control when it happened.

 

The boys played Mario Kart and relaxed, all while Hyungwon was mentally counting the minutes on the watch in his head, he probably had less than half an hour left to be here if he wasn’t pretty sure that Changkyun’s theory could be correct, so he tried to let it go.

 

“Kihyun-ah, can you move for a tic? I’m gonna put the kettle on for tea” Hyungwon whispered into his friend’s ear, who was currently scrolling through his twitter feed, Kihyun shifted from Hyungwon’s lap, to sit on a protesting Jooheon instead, as Hyungwon got up to go to the kitchen.

“Does anyone want some tea?”

A chorus of “me”s came from the lounge, so Hyungwon filled the kettle up to the top and got everyone’s mugs from the cupboard, taking his own frog shaped mug in his hands and staring at it, hoping that he’ll stay in this timeline for more than the hour the watch gave him. When the kettle clicked off, and Hyungwon hadn’t moved from his spot to start the tea, he heard the game of Mario Kart pause in the lounge room

 

“Hyungwon, you’re still there right?” Minhyuk’s concerned voice came from the next room “You haven’t gone yet?” He heard someone start to get up off the couch so he rushed to reassure everyone he was still here

 

“I haven’t left, it’s okay, I was just thinking” the game of Mario Kart started up again, as Hyungwon started making the tea for everyone, they were sure he was still here and breathing in this timeline. He was almost done making the tea when he looked up to see Minhyuk leaning against the door frame, with his arms crossed

 

“Hey” he said softly, as he started to move over to Hyungwon at the counter

“You okay? I know it’s rough” Hyungwon smiled a too tight smile at Minhyuk, and handed him his cup of tea

 

“I’ll be okay, it been months, I’m just thinking about the possibility of staying here instead of leaving again so soon”

 

“I’d like that, I know that Changkyun would too”

 

The two took their cups of tea into the lounge, only for Hyungwon to find that his spot on the couch had been taken by Hoseok, who smiled apologetically, but had Kihyun in his lap, and was playing with his hair, so he wasn’t really that sorry. Hyungwon just smiled and took a seat on the floor, next to Hyunwoo, who put his arm around his shoulder and held him tight.

 

“Here’s your tea” Hyungwon handed him the warm iron man mug and sipped his own warm tea without much thought, snuggling into the side of the soft man. When everyone was settled and had started playing Smash Bros. instead of Mario Kart, Hyungwon placed his mug down next to Hyunwoo and got up to go and sit next to Changkyun against the couch.

 

“Hey” Changkyun whispered, snuggling up to Hyungwon as soon as he sat down, putting his head on Hyungwon’s arm “it’s a really pretty watch huh?” Hyungwon hums, watching Changkyun roll the watch around in his hands, tracing the patterns on it, as Kihyun once did, and Minhyuk traced along his hands as he helped Hyungwon sleep in the palace late at night when he skips straight into the room, panicking because he got separated from Jooheon at the University, when he didn’t know where he was.

 

“It’s lovely, I wonder who made it almost every day” Changkyun lies down and puts his head in Hyungwon’s lap, looking up at Hyungwon and smiling

 

“Don’t leave okay? It’s not touching you, so you should stay”

 

Hyungwon smiles, because he’s pretty sure he’s already past the time to skip now, and he’s still here

 

“Not planning on it Kyunnie”

he lets his hands find their way to the younger’s hair, and he twists his fingers through it, playing with the now green locks, he reaches one hand down to stroke the younger’s cheek as he smiles up at Hyungwon. When he moves his hands to run back through Changkyun’s hair again, nothing meets Changkyun’s scalp except the shock of his head meeting the rug floor.

 

Changkyun sits up, the watch clutched in his hands, and slowly turns around to meet Hoseok’s eyes, which are also starting to fill up with tears, through the thickness of his throat Changkyun manages to whisper out those 3 words he never wanted to say

 

 

“It didn’t work”

 

 

——

 

 

Hyungwon is thrown into the ground when he skips,

and the first thing his brain registers is oh god it didn’t work,

and then he’s crying,

and when he looks up, he’s in the palace for sure, but there are guards coming from around the sides of the building to where he is, sitting in the dirt of the courtyard, yelling about an intruder who’s a threat to the crown prince, plotting against them.

 

And then Hyungwon is crying harder, because now the guards, none of whom are familiar have their spears pointed at him, and are yelling at him to stand and surrender, so he works his way up off the ground, hands raised, and sobs, because no one he knows is here, and no one knows that he is here, for the first time he’s completely alone in a skip, and what the fuck, why did it have to be the palace of all places?

 

“Get the head guard! We have an intruder!”

 

One of the guards shouts, and one of the younger looking men runs off in the direction of the guard house, and Hyungwon starts to shake, because if they decide to imprison him it’s over, or even worse, he’s unarmed and deemed a threat, and these men all have spears and swords. He stands with his arms raised and shakes like a leaf, face paling, and snot running down his face.

 

As Hyungwon hears the sound of footsteps running towards him, he feels the panic set in even worse, to the point of numbness now, there’s no longer fear, it’s just a shell of Hyungwon.

 

The head guard runs around the corner and stops once he sees the situation, sees Hyungwon shaking like a leaf, face empty of emotions, and tears streaming down his face, mixing in with snot as he silently cries

 

“STAND DOWN” Hoseok’s voice booms across the courtyard, most of the guards listen, but a couple still stand with their swords pointed at Hyungwon, looks of confusion on their faces

 

“But ahjussi-“ one tries to protest, but Hoseok just yells again

 

“I SAID STAND DOWN, LET HIM GO, leave us okay?” His voice trails off as he looks at Hyungwon in the middle of a panic attack, steeling himself to the outside world, the noise and the threats of unfamiliar people in a different time.

The guards leave without protest again, and Hoseok walks his way up to Hyungwon’s still shaking form, he approaches him like a deer

 

“Hey Wonnie” he makes sure he’s in Hyungwon’s line of vision “Wonnie it’s me” he sees the small relaxing in Hyungwon’s face at his voice, so he keeps talking “Hyungwon, I need you to calm down for me okay, they won’t hurt you, I’m here”

 

Hyungwon is numb. From the drastic change of atmospheres in a matter of minutes, from calm and finally stable, to being threatened and alone, and now here’s Hoseok, right in front of him, and he’s not alone again. He’s never alone when he skips, there’s always someone close by.

 

“Hyungwon, Hey, talk to me buddy” Hoseok feels tears well up in his eyes because he hasn’t seen Hyungwon in easily over a year, and my god he misses him

“We’re gonna go to my quarters and get you cleaned up, okay?” Hoseok makes himself strong for as long as it takes to get Hyungwon back to his quarters to calm him down.

 

Hyungwon nods, but his brain is cloudy and he’s not really sure what he’s nodding to, all he knows it that it’s Hoseok, and he wouldn’t ever do anything to him. So he follows, the gentle pressure of Hoseok’s hand on his waist, leading him somewhere away from the courtyard.

 

Hoseok guides Hyungwon, ever so gently, around the building he manifested behind, and inside. As the two walk through the halls, he sees the head of Minhyuk peak out from his quarters

“Is everything okay Hoseo- oh”

Minhyuk takes one look at Hyungwon, covered in tears and snot in Hoseok’s arms, and rushes out of his room, leaving his door open, to meet the two

“Hyungwon-ah, what took you so long to come back darling?” He gently strokes Hyungwon’s face, and frowns as Hyungwon flinches away from his touch, still in panic mode. Hoseok looks at Minhyuk with a gentle smile

 

“Take him to my room will you? We’ll get him cleaned up” Hoseok smiles as Minhyuk nods straight away and starts to usher Hyungwon to the room of the head guard, he’s so gently encouraging him, but he can see that Hyungwon is pretty far in his own panic right now, and they’re going to have to take it slow.

 

“Won-ah, come on darling, let’s sit down on the bed okay?” Minhyuk suggests, before sitting down, and lowering Hyungwon gently to sit between his legs, where he can support his weight and keep him safe from all angles. “Hoseok’s gonna come back in a second and we’re gonna get you cleaned up, okay Won-ah?” Hyungwon nods a little to this, and Minhyuk smiles, rubbing the tall boy’s arms in a way he hopes is comforting, looking at the door and waiting for Hoseok to return.

 

When Minhyuk hears Hoseok approaching, he feels Hyungwon flinch at the sound in his arms, so he brings him against his chest and puts his head on Hyungwon’s shoulder

“It’s just Hoseok, darling, it’s fine” when he feels Hyungwon relax again he smiles a little, because that’s some progress.

 

Hoseok slides the door open with his foot, to reveal his hands full of a cup of warm water and a few cloths, when he settles down on the ground next to the bed, Hoseok smiles sadly at Hyungwon, who is slowly coming down from his panic attack, but isn’t back quite yet.

 

“Hey Wonnie, I’m going to wipe your face with the warm cloth okay?” Hoseok dunks one of the cloths in the warm water and rings it out, looking at Minhyuk for a second to quietly ask him to rotate Hyungwon, so he could clean his face easier

 

“Won-ah we’re going to turn so we can look at Hoseok okay?” Minhyuk taps Hyungwon’s shoulder as he feels him start to turn himself so that Hoseok has easier access to his face, smiling softly at his friend “there we go, good job” he offers, as Hyungwon looks up at Hoseok with uncertain eyes.

 

“Gonna wipe you face now okay?” Hoseok reminds Hyungwon gently, waiting for any sign of protest from the boy before he starts to wash him up, but instead, Hyungwon tilts his chin to Hoseok and closes his eyes, his lips pouting more than usual, and colour returning to his face.

 

More than anything else, the warm cloth wiping down his face is a relief for Hyungwon, his tears are wiped away with the water, and his runny nose cleaned up before it dried on his face. He can feel Minhyuk rubbing soft patterns onto his arms in an attempt to ground him, so he leans into his chest, feeling the embrace tighten a little around his body. He knows partially what’s going on, thanks to the boys’ constant narration as they do anything, making sure to keep Hyungwon down from his panic attack.

 

Hoseok wrings the cloth free of clean water and makes quick work of making sure there’s no more snot or dried tears on Hyungwon’s face, and then he puts it aside on the dish that he had his dinner on before the ruckus erupted outside, swapping it for a dry cloth

 

“Hey Wonnie I’m going to pat your face dry okay?” Hyungwon nods slightly before Hoseok starts to dry his friend’s face off, making sure to be gentle. And when he’s finished, he runs his hand along the side of Hyungwon’sface before he puts the cloths and water aside.

 

Minhyuk still rubs small patterns into Hyungwon’s arms to keep him grounded as Hoseok works to clear everything back to where it should be. Tracing the all to familiar patterns of the watch that keep him in a good headspace when he skips more rapidly than he’d like.

 

“Won-ah, we’re going to lay down now and cuddle for a bit while Hoseok cleans up, okay?” Hyungwon nods, and follows Minhyuk’s lead, laying down on the bed roll, putting his head on Minhyuk’s chest, where he can feel his friend’s steady heartbeat, so tame and stable unlike his own. And he can feel himself coming back into reality and the cloud in his brain drifting away once more, so he snuggles further into his friend’s embrace and waits, waits to hear Hoseok returning from wherever he went with the cloths.

 

When Hoseok returns, he’s glad to see his friends cuddled up on his bed, after so long being separated, he can see the tenderness in Minhyuk’s eyes as he strokes Hyungwon’s arms as the boy calms down almost fully. He pads his way over to the boys and sits down, lowering himself ont the bed, so that Hyungwon can see him despite laying on Minhyuk’s chest.

 

“Hey Wonnie, how are you doing?” And when Hyungwon offers a small smile and a mumbled thanks, Hoseok lets himself relax, and put his arm across Minhyuk and Hyungwon as they calmed Hyungwon down.

The trio cuddled against each other, and Minhyuk thought, if only they got less than an hour of this, everything would be fine.

 

 

 

Hyungwon eventually calmed down, steady breathing after too long of shaky, sharp breaths into Minhyuk’s chest, he looks up to meet Minhyuk’s tender expression and smiles, ever so slightly, before looking down to meet the face of Hoseok, who has his eyes partially closed, and his arm still slung across the other two boys. Hyungwon is glad that he wasn’t alone, and that Hoseok was still here to protect him in the palace, no matter when he came here.

 

“I lost the watch” Hyungwon whispers to no one in particular, waiting to see what his friends would do. Hoseok opens his eyes fully and looks at Hyungwon’s still sad expression, he nods sullenly and moves his hand up to the back of Hyungwon’s head, slowly moving his fingers in Hyungwon’s pink hair

“Changkyun thought it would make me stop doing this, stop skipping, and I thought it would too” Hyungwon twists over so he faces Minhyuk’s chest, muffling his voice in the soft fabric of his hanbok

“it didn’t work though, and now Changkyun’s not gonna be doing well, and I have no idea when I can get back to him” Minhyuk looks at Hoseok, worry in his eyes, before moving his hand from Hyungwon’s arm, to gently stroke his face, his hand wandering to play with Hyungwon’s earring

 

“Hyungwon, sweetie, we’ll figure it out” Minhyuk’s voice vibrates through Hyungwon’s body, calming him down before the panic can flare up again, Hyungwon hums into Minhyuk’s shirt and twists to look back up at his friend

 

“I hope we do, but can you two just talk for now, it helps me calm down” Hyungwon looks at Hoseok’s worried eyes, waiting for a reaction.

 

“How about we all sit up and get some blankets onto us first?” Hoseok suggests, smiling at his friends, who sit up and wait for Hoseok to drape some blankets across the two of the floor.

 

They end up with Hoseok and Minhyuk leaning on each other, sitting up as Hyungwon lays down with his body resting on their legs, staring up at them as they both play with his hair or his hands. They talk sweet nothings about the drama of the palace, the young Lee boys causing drama when the sons of the next kingdom over were sent with their older brothers to make alliances between the two. The 4 boys were all of the same age and the older Kim and Lee brothers were having the time of their lives trying to keep them from burning down the castle.

 

They come to a natural lull in conversation, when Minhyuk starts to look a little concerned, a face that Hyungwon picks up on almost instantly, seeing it for the majority of his life

“Hyuk what’s wrong?” Hyungwon whispers, earning a look from Hoseok with furrowed eyebrows, Minhyuk stares into space for a few minutes before he looks at Hyungwon

 

“You’ve been here for too long” Minhyuk breathes out the syllables as if he’s afraid that he’ll speak and Hyungwon will disappear before his eyes

“It’s been over an hour right?” Hyungwon feels the realisation settle into his bones, the cold of fear taking its journey up his spine, his watch is gone and he may be stuck here

 

“Give it 5 minutes, maybe it hasn’t been an hour yet” Hoseok mumbles, although the other two boys can feel the fear edge his tone. Hoseok starts to run his fingers through Hyungwon’s hair again, trying to calm the two of them down.

“Wonnie” Hoseok starts, then trails off before he can get another word out, Hyungwon tilts his head up to meet his friends eyes

 

“Yeah, what is it?”

 

“You haven’t been here for a year, you know, I was so worried about you” Hoseok can feel the pressure behind his eyes as his tears start to build up

“I thought you weren’t coming back”

 

Hyungwon can see Minhyuk’s tight smile as he tries to keep it together for the boys, so he sits up from the ground, and sits basically in Hoseok’s lap, facing his friend. Bringing him into his embrace, Hyungwon can feel the telltale shake of Hoseok’s body as he tries not to cry, but fails, as Minhyuk envelops the two in his arms.

 

It’s definitely been way more than an hour now, and Hyungwon knows he may be stuck here, without his watch, but he lets himself forget about it and take care of the situation in front of him

 

“Hey, Hoseok, I’d never leave you forever, okay? I’ll always come back, it might be minutes for me, but I know it’s weeks or months for you” Hyungwon rests his forehead against Hoseok’s, and looks into his friend’s teary eyes“I’ll always come back to you guys here, for as long as I live, okay?” Hoseok smiles gently, giving a watery laugh, and a quick sniff, as he pulls back to wipe his nose with the back of his hand.

 

“Wonnie what would we do without you, huh?” He whispers, offering a teary smile to Minhyuk andHyungwon. Minhyuk smiles widely at the two, but it seems too tight, the boys don’t notice it until he leans back, putting his hands in his lap and stretching out

 

“I don’t mean to alarm you two, but it’s been well over an hour”

 

 

The words hit Hyungwon like a truck, he feels the fear settle deep into his bones once more, having just shifted the feeling in favour of looking after Hoseok. He feels his world shrinking to just the room the trio occupy, and once more for the day, he feels himself start to shake, just faintly, not a panic, just fear and adrenaline rush through his veins.

 

“Oh god, no” just a small whisper escapes his mouth, floating away with the faint breeze they hear outside.

“If that was my last skip, and I’m stuck here now, I-“ Hyungwon stops himself from even speaking the rest of his thought into existence, but what about Changkyun, his mind dares to offer, he’s going to be devastated when you don’t come back, the little voice says, he’s got your watch but not you, he’s going to be reminded of you everyday, he’s going to think it’s his-

Minhyuk seems to see Hyungwon’s thoughts spiral into the hell that is his panic once again, and Hoseok doesn’t look any better, the guilt of making a fuss over Hyungwon’s time since his last return consuming his brain.

So he stands up, and walks out of the room, leaving the two together, with their minds twisting into a dark spiral together.

 

Not even a minute later, Minhyuk walks back into the room, another blanket over his arm, and a tray of tea cups in his hand. He sets the tray of cups down near the boys, and slowly makes his way to his friends, both spiralling into their thoughts on the floor, with his thick blanket in hand.

Gently he wraps Hyungwon up in the blanket he was holding, and makes his way over to Hoseok

 

“Hey, Seok-ah, look at me” Hoseok tilts his head up slightly and looks at Minhyuk, his tears have started to dry up on his cheeks, so Minhyuk gently takes Hoseok’s face in his hands, and strokes the drying tears away with his thumb. When he’s sure that Hoseok is back and grounded with Minhyuk, he wraps Hoseok in the blanket they abandoned earlier, pulling it tight like a hug.

 

He sits down in between Hoseok and Hyungwon, and pulls the two into his body, kissing the crown of their heads, and smiling into Hyungwon’s hair

“Hyungwon it’s going to be okay, you’ve been staying longer and longer as you keep skipping” he runs his hand along Hyungwon’s face to cup his cheek

“Darling, maybe this is just the longest skip you have yet? It’s okay, we can figure it out”

 

Hyungwon nods a little at this, looking at Hoseok, sitting across from him, upset once more

“Hoseok, it’s okay, nothing is your fault” but Hoseok doesn’t seem to look any better, so Hyungwon, wrapped up tightly in the blanket, shuffles towards Hoseok, and lets his body rock to lean on his friend

“I didn’t mean to leave for so long, I’m just making up for lost time you know?”

This gets the reaction that Hyungwon was looking for, Hoseok looks up with his watery puppy eyes and pouts at Hyungwon

 

“You’re an idiot, you know, Chae, don’t stay here if your other friends are going without you!” With his arms wrapped tight in the blanket, Hoseok can’t hit Hyungwon playfully at all, so he just blows right into his friend’s face, laughing a little while still laughing.

 

“Hey play nice” laughs Minhyuk, and flicks the two boys in the ear “now that we’re not all sobbing messes, how about we get up, go for a walk and have some tea with whoever is inside right now?”

 

The boys start to stand up, Hyungwon taking his blanket cape with him as they make their way back outside to the courtyard, where the sun is just starting to set, sending colours across the sky. The trio take their stroll down to the centre of the palace, where they find 4 boys playing battle with wooden swords, and a laughing Taeyong sitting with another, rabbit-like man, telling him an animated story, waving his hands about and stopping to smile at his companion in between sentences.

 

The boys stop to bow at Hoseok as he walks into the courtyard, but he waves them off, smiling at them

 

“Don’t hold back as much as you are Renjun! Let them have it!” Hoseok yelled out to the boys, Renjun, Hyungwon assumes, bows and turns back to his friends with an evil smirk, as he lets lose on his friends, with a renewed fire in their eyes.

Once they see the boys playing once more, the trio walk around to the large courtyard, where workers often hung out during their breaks, to see if any of their friends were there. When they reached the open area, they were greeted by Jihoon, Seungcheol and Jeonghan, sitting with a group of boys that Hyungwon didn’t recognise, when the group saw Hyungwon, Hoseok and Minhyuk approaching, they waved them over.

 

“Hyungwon! Nice to see you!” Jeonghan smiled, rosey cheeks, and long hair drifting in the breeze

“Come and sit, these are all our friends!” When the trio got themselves seated, the boys that Hyungwon were unfamiliar with introduced themselves as Mingyu, Wonwoo, Seokmin and Jisoo. They were quick to include Hyungwon in conversation despite not having met him before, joking around about their antics dancing together. Part of the palace entertainment, Hyungwon gathers, as he tries to laugh along with jokes he doesn’t understand, but feeling welcomed with the group, none the less.

 

“Hey guys, we were on our way to get some tea, do you want to come with us?” Minhyuk interrupts, smiling at the group before stretching, giving Hyungwon the look like they should probably have the drink they were planning on

 

“Yeah sure, I don’t see why not” Seungcheol says, stretching and moving to get up. Once he was up, the rest of the boys followed and started moving toward the worker’s studios, where Hyungwon first encountered his friends in this time

 

The boys all settle eventually around a small fire which has tea brewing on top of it, courtesy of Jisoo, who it turns out, has quite the array of teas, and quite the talent at brewing nice blends. Hyungwon takes a cushion and sits next to Hoseok, who seems to be completely calm now, and Seokmin, who makes light conversation with Hyungwon, his tan cheeks lightly dusted with freckles in a way that Hyungwon thinks is beautiful, like the sun on a warm day.

 

“Hyungwon?” Minhyuk gets Hyungwon’s attention from near the teapot, when he sees his friend look up, he holds a wooden tea cup to him “Have something to drink” Hyungwon scoots forward on his cushion to accept the cup, and slowly makes his way back to a still smiling Seokmin and Hoseok, maintaining the soft flow of conversation in the room.

 

“Thank you for the tea” Hyungwon says, taking a sip from the warm blend, humming when it hits his throat, the warmth of honey and green tea meeting his sore throat, from crying earlier that day.

When he takes the second sip from his tea, Hoseok is lucky that Hyungwon put his cup closer to the ground when he did. Because thankfully, the only time that Hoseok and Minhyuk are glad to see it happen, Hyungwon skips, over an hour overdue, but he skips.

 

The tea cup hits the floor, splashing the warm tea over the ground, shocking the boys Hyungwon hadn’t met before today.

“Rude” whispers Jisoo, looking at the wasted tea on the floorboards, turning into a puddle in the centre of the room. Seokmin and Mingyu look up at the cup and give a soft laugh, showing their confusion at the events unfolding.

 

Minhyuk just places down the cup of tea he was currently pouring, and looks at Hoseok with the biggest grin he can muster

 

 

“Oh thank god, he can still go home”

 

 

——

 

 

 

“Oh hey, you’re back!”

When Hyungwon skips this time, he is utterly grateful, and when he looks up from his position seated on the floor of Kihyun’s fabric store, he almost cries with relief at the cropped haired Kihyun before him.

 

“You good Hyungwon?” When Hyungwon nods, Kihyun offers him a hand up, and pulls out a chair next to his table. Hyungwon smiles at Kihyun and laughs a little, before taking a seat next to his friend, but his friend doesn’t question it, he only looks at his friend smiling, as he normally does when Hyungwon makes an appearance

 

“Thought I was stuck in the palace, I freaked out a little because I think I was there for 2 hours?” He nods “Yeah, it was not a great time”

 

Kihyun nods like he’s heard the story once before, and he’s sorry that it happened to his friend, he’s stoic for all of half a second, before he perks up, and gets off his stool, rushing around the table to near the door, before digging through his bag to find something. Once he’s located the object, he holds it behind his back as he makes his way back to Hyungwon, dramatically turning so Hyungwon can’t see what he has behind his back. Hyungwon is not unfamiliar to Kihyun’s antics, so he just raises an eyebrow and meets eyes with his friend

 

“What you got there Kihyunnie?” Kihyun cracks a grin, taking down his dramatic-serious look in a matter of seconds and looks at Hyungwon, looking proud, and if he had feathers, Hyungwon thought, he’d be puffing them out right now.

 

“Okay, so you were here about an hour ago, laughed at me and told me the story you just told me then, which by the way, is funnier when you look back on it, because Changkyun is literally a baby when he wants to be, and we all know that”

Hyungwon raises his eyebrow again, tilting his head for Kihyun to continue

“Okay, so all of that aside, I got you a gift, close your eyes though, I want it to be a surprise”

 

So Hyungwon stretches his hands out in front of him, ready to get whatever it is that Kihyun got him, honestly expecting a bug or something, and closes his eyes. What he wasn’t expecting, was the solid weight of intricately carved metal to meet his hands, and the feeling of immense comfort and relief as his hands closed around the object.

When he opens his eyes, Hyungwon’s gaze falls upon his watch, cleaner, and the carvings looking brand new. When he looks up at Kihyun again, his eyes are brimming with tears

 

“Oh my god don’t cry” Kihyun panics a little, rushing forwards to embrace Hyungwon “If it’s that awful I can take it back, I just saw it and thought of your watch, so I got it engraved for you!” Hyungwon laughs into his friend’s chest

 

“No Kihyun, it’s perfect, don’t worry, it’s absolutely perfect” Hyungwon grins until he thinks that his cheeks might split open, holding the watch in his hands. When he clicks the cover open to reveal the watch face, he smiles again, watching the minute hand slide smoothly past the 35.

 

He’s okay.

And it’s all thanks to Kihyun.

 

When he squeezes his arms around his friend’s waist, Hyungwon gets a pat on the head on return, and a whispered

“I can’t breathe Hyungwon”

So he lets go quickly, and looks up at his friend.

 

“Thank you, so, so much Kihyun, it means the world to me”

 

“Hey do you wanna see if something works?” Kihyun suggests, Hyungwon nods tentatively

 

“Uh, I guess? What is it?”

 

“Turn the knob at the top, backwards” he says, and then walks around to the other side, of the desk, grabbing a ball of fabric scraps off the table

“On the count of three, Okay?” Hyungwon nods, getting ready to turn it

 

“One”

 

“Two”

 

“Three!” Kihyun launches the ball of scraps directly at Hyungwon’s head as he twists the knob backwards, but much to Hyungwon’s surprise, he watches as the ball of scraps, milliseconds before hitting his face, slowly travel backward in the air, back into Kihyun’s hand. He watches as he twists it further, and Kihyun walks slowly backward, to be standing right in front of Hyungwon once more. And he’s amazed. He lets go of the knob, and Kihyun starts to move back around the desk, reaching out for the ball of scraps.

 

“Hey, it worked, Kihyunnie, it worked?” Hyungwon looks up at his friend, nearing laughter

“Yah! Why did you throw the scraps at me anyway? What would you have done if it didn’t work and you hit me with them huh?!” Kihyun just laughs at Hyungwon, and grabs the scraps anyway, throwing them at his friend.

 

“Dealt with the consequences I guess” he giggles, sprinting around behind the shelves of fabric, like a child playing tag.

 

Hyungwon launches himself off his chair, and gives in to Kihyun, chasing him around the shelves, and giggling like a fool. The two play around for some minutes before Hyungwon gets puffed, and Kihyun sneaks up behind him, attacking Hyungwon with tickles, before resting his hands on Hyungwon’s shoulders.

 

“Hyungwon, go on and check up on Changkyun, okay? I’ll see you soon, alright?”

 

So he does, Hyungwon presses the button and lets himself skip, again and again until he sees the red eyes of Changkyun look up at him from his position on the couch, wrapped in blankets, and a sleeping Hyunwoo’s arms, still clutching Hyungwon’s watch in his hands. He skips until he can sit with Changkyun and tell him everything is alright, he might just skip for the rest of his life, but he’ll always be here for his Changkyunnie. Because he always has his friends at his side, and Changkyun should always know that he’s not too far off if he can help it.

 

 

 

——

 

 

Epilogue

 

——

 

 

Jooheon is laying in his dorm, leant up against his plush frog, reading his biology textbook when Hyungwon appears in front of him, face flushed red, and little giggles escaping under his breath.

 

“Hey Hyungwonnie,” Jooheon turns in the couch so that Hyungwon can take a seat, leaning up against him “how have you been?” He closes the biology textbook and places it on the floor.

Hyungwon settles down, snuggling into Jooheon’s side straight away

 

“Safe” Hyungwon smiles at his friend “I visited you from my time yesterday, you have blue hair now you know?” Jooheon reaches up and touches his own gelled back, jet black hair, and smiles absently

 

“Huh, that’s pretty sweet. Does blue suit me?” Hyungwon hums, nodding his head, and then the two of them fall into a comfortable silence. Hyungwon checks his watch to see the hand tick past the 56, so he closes the cover, and smiles at Jooheon, who seems content to be crushed by the lanky boy. Minutes pass and Jooheon speaks up

 

“Hey Wonnie?” Hyungwon hums

 

“Yeah Honey?”

 

“Always find me, yeah?” They make eye contact, as Hyungwon nods

 

“Of course”

 

And he skips, leaving Jooheon alone in his dorm, sitting in the afternoon sun as the door to his dorm flies open to reveal Changkyun with ruffled hair and a massive grin on his face, red from running to meet his friends.

 

“Did I hear Hyungwon?!” He smiles like an over excited puppy and scans the room for his tall friend

 

 

“Just left Kyunnie, he’ll be back before you know it though, he always is”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry for ripping your hearts into pieces,,, come and yell at me on my Twitter @renjunsrey and tell me how I made ya feel.
> 
> There’ll be quite a lot of HOH and Deaf aus coming in the future since there is a severe lack of them in this fandom,,,
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading, it’s much appreciated! And your kudos mean the world to me!


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